


A Bruised Apple

by GnohomasWitness



Series: Adam's Early Days [1]
Category: Runescape (Video Games)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-16
Updated: 2018-09-16
Packaged: 2019-07-13 05:10:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16010948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GnohomasWitness/pseuds/GnohomasWitness
Summary: This is the first in a series of fics I’ll be writing telling about Adam’s early adventuring days.Years before becoming the Legend and now Myth guild member Green Kananga, Adam was a Champion’s guild newbie who struggled with his violent criminal past. He thought his pardon and rehabilitation on Entrana would be enough to turn his life around. He was wrong. It’s been one month since Adam left Entrana and things are going slower than he had hoped. The Champion’s guild refuses to let him take on any decent quest offers due to his past which has severely stunted his career.





	A Bruised Apple

Valaine sat at the receptionist’s desk in the Champion’s guild. She was feeling exhausted. The desk was flooded with guild applications and job offers both filled and unfilled, all mixed up, all her job to sort. Every minute, more paperwork would appear, needing to be sorted. It was overwhelming. Over the years, the once impressive champion’s guild of Misthalin had become little more than a hangout for local thugs and hired killers. Membership in the guild was simply a paper to throw in the faces of guards, an excuse for why you were beating up that old woman, or why you thought you had the right to burn down somebody’s house. Of course, it rarely worked, and the thugs would just get arrested anyway. It just meant more paperwork for the guards, and for her.

The woman looked over to the guildmaster. He was laughing and enjoying a drink with a handful of young female adventurers. The girls looked about half his age. “Flirt with those hoes all you want, honey.” Valaine thought to herself as she reached out with her hand and pretended to squeeze the guildmaster’s buttock from across the room. “One day you will be mine…”

A long shadow crept over Valaine’s desk.

“Excuse me miss…” A voice with a strange accent snapped her out of her exhausted trance. 

Valaine shook her head sharply and came to. She looked up to face the adventurer who had come to her desk. Valaine’s blood ran cold as she faced the nasty looking giant of a man. He was a tall brute with green skin, a scruffy black beard and shaggy hair. He was built like a kurask and his blue eyes beat down on her from under his mean brow. She did her best to look tough back at him. “Can I help you?” She hissed with a disgusted face.

“Sorry to disturb you ma’am.” The adventurer said. His accent was loud and brutal despite the general calmness in his tone. It was obnoxiously gravely and slurred. The cockney hick accent of southern Misthalin sounded more intelligent. “I was wondering if you could remove me and then reinstate me into the guild.” His words slurred out of his mouth like a rockfall. It was an insult to the King’s tongue.

Valaine raised an eyebrow at the giant. “What do you mean, love?” 

The giant leaned with his palms on the desk. “I’ve got some rough patches in my past that I’d prefer not to live with anymore.” 

There was a whoop from the rabble of adventurers across the room. Valaine rolled her eyes along with the giant. 

“I’m a changed man and I’m trying to get a new start on adventuring! But my past is getting in the way of my career. I keep getting rejected by any job posting I try to accept that isn’t just low paying manual labour or construction work.”

Valaine looked down at the dozens of drawers that lined her side of the large desk. “I see…” She muttered. “I’m not sure there’s much the guild can do about that but let’s take a look. What’s your name?”

There was a pause. “Adam Neeson.” The man said with an exhale. He sounded almost reluctant to say it.

Looking down at the drawer for N names, Valaine repeated the name in her head. She walked along the hundreds of folders with her fingers until she finally found Adam Neeson’s folder at the very back. The guild made it a point to swiftly archive the folders of adventurers who died. This was clearly a name that had not been mentioned for several years.

The giant revealed a hopeful look in his eyes as Valaine set the folder down on the desk in front of her. The folder seemed unusually thick for a champion. Valaine sighed and opened it up.

The folder was filled with newspaper clippings and documents talking about the dangers of a man called The Bull. Valaine shot Adam a sneer as she flipped through it all. Document after document with big red stamps reading things like DANGEROUS, KILL ON SIGHT, MURDERER, DO NOT ALLOW ENTRY INTO THE GUILD. Newspaper clippings told stories of a giant with an unusual voice, long black hair and a scar on his lower jaw going on horrible rampages, robbing and killing for the wilderness gang called the McCleods.

“You worked in Roland McCleod’s gang…” Valaine muttered to herself. “How the fuck are you not hanging in the gallows…” Years of working alongside absolute pigs in the Champion’s guild made Valaine tremendously apathetic about whether or not she hurt anybody’s feelings.

The man pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket. “I’ve got a pardon letter from Sir Amik Varze of Falador. I became a monk of Entrana for two years! Saradomin saved me from my old self. That guy on my record, that’s not me, I don’t do that kind of thing anymore! I want to start a new life.”

Valaine scoffed and closed the folder, unable to read anymore. “That letter may keep you out of prison, Mr Neeson, but it isn’t going to change the past. I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to live with the reality of what you did.”

Adam visibly deflated. “Isn’t there anything you can do?”

Valaine stuck up her nose. “I’m afraid document destruction isn’t something the guild partakes in!” She said, coldly. “I wouldn’t hire you either to be perfectly honest.” Upon saying that, the woman noticed a twitch in the man’s hand before he sighed and closed his eyes.

There was another rowdy holler from the thugs and adventurers at the long table in the guild hall. The pigs were now several more beers into their fun. 

Adam clenched his fist banged it on Valaine’s desk. He shouted at the party. “CAN YA’LL SHUT THE HELL UP?!” He bellowed in a heavily accented roar. It filled the guild hall like a church organ. Everyone went quiet for a moment.

Valaine froze in fear. This was the Bull, the champion berserker of the McCleods, no question about it. Here he was, standing in front of her.

“You shut up!” The guildmaster yelled back. The whole party erupted with laugher.

Adam took a breath to shout something back, he stopped himself. He bit his bottom lip and turned back to Valaine. The woman was shaking. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry!” He blurted, trying to comfort the woman. “I really don’t do that I can’t believe I let that out that’s not me I swear I’m better now I…” 

Valaine interrupted him. “Go.” She said. “Just go, if you want to be better, be better. You’re not the only person here with a criminal past believe me. Clean yourself up, get a haircut, keep the beard though, you don’t want anybody seeing that scar. We can’t change your documents, I’m sorry, we’d keep them even if you left and rejoined. But please, for now, just go.” 

Adam nodded and headed toward the door. His head drooped, he picked up a small quest offer on the way out. He closed the door gently as he left the guild.

Valaine sighed and put Adam’s folder back in the drawer. 

“Yo, Miss Valaine!” A voice came from behind her. 

Valaine turned around. It was some thug she had probably spoken to before, she didn’t know his name.

“You see this lipstick on my fist here?” He said while excitedly showing Valaine. A red gloss was smeared across his knuckles. “I got it on me when I intercepted that royal convoy on its way to Lumbridge. Dude back there just looked it over. He says a stick of this would cost 100K!” The thug grinned like a happy puppy waiting for a pat on the head.

Valaine grimaced. She hated her job.

Adam Neeson trudged up the road to Varrock with his head down and his hands in his pockets. It had been a month since was released from Entrana a free man pardoned of all his past crimes. He thought he would be able to turn his life around after leaving Entrana to become an adventurer, but it seemed like that was going to be harder than he thought.  
Adam looked down at the quest offer he had pulled from the notice board. Spend the day carrying yew logs to the digsite for 600 gold. He grunted. More manual labour. Adam was only able to accept the lowest tier quests the guild had to offer. Nobody would dare hire him to do any real adventuring work. He was a toxic asset with his past attached to him like a ball and chain, unless he went back to crime of course. But that was not an option. 

It started to rain when Adam made it past the walls of the city. He hadn’t felt so alone in years. When he had left the goblin village at age 19 he had thought he could take the reigns of his own life and make a name for himself. Now here he was at age 25 going on 26, with even less than he started with. All he knew was what not to do. Crime didn’t pay, it just made the world spit you out, assuming you didn’t wind up dead. He knew that first hand. Adam had hoped that the Champion’s guild would be able to wipe his record, even if it meant him having to re-enroll into the guild. It didn’t seem like that was an option, even with his pardon. Adam cursed at the road as he headed home. The rain came down harder.

Cold water splashed up Adam’s leg as he stepped in a puddle. His sock got wet as the water seeped through a crack in his beaten, old boots. A crash of thunder pounded from overhead. Adam sighed.

The heavy rain had become a violent thunderstorm by the time Adam made it to his neighbourhood. Adam had no money coming out of Entrana. The best he could do on the meagre wage he could make from lackluster guild quests was a rundown apartment in the mean end of Varrock. It wasn’t a whole lot nicer than the kinds of places he’d sleep when he was a criminal. At least it had a fireplace to keep him warm after being out on rainy nights like this.

Adam walked down the beaten road of southeast Varrock. The city slums, he was almost home. Adam picked up his pace as he walked past a dark alleyway between two ransacked warehouses. It was a known hideout for muggers, not to mention a permanent home for hundreds of rats. 

There was a scurrying sound coming from the alley as Adam walked past it. Adam payed it no mind. It was probably just another rat. Then there was a squeak. Adam nodded to himself. It was just a rat. Then a soft cry came from the alley, it was feint but it pierced the roaring thunder and patter of the rain. 

Adam groaned. That didn’t sound like a rat, it was something else. It sounded like it needed help! “Saradomin…” Adam grunted as he turned to run back and down the alley.

Creeping down the dark alleyway, Adam could hear more scurrying as a pair of shadows started to move in the distance. All his senses were turned on high alert for any signs of danger. He was doing one the stupidest things you could possibly do in the city at night. As Adam crept further into the alley, the shadows out in front began to take a more solid form and the sound of scratching and scurrying got louder. The crying grew louder too. Adam could finally see what was in front of him.

Two giant rats were closing in on a carboard box. They were fat and smelly from years of eating the city’s garbage. Something was crying from inside the box as the rats drew nearer.

Adam ran forward waving his arms. “Get outta here ya damn trash bandits!” He shouted harshly at the rats. 

The giant rats squeaked and ran away from the hulking man, taking off into the night.

“Cretins from hell…” Adam muttered as he knelt down over the box. Whatever was inside was still crying like mad. 

Adam turned the box upright and peered inside. A tiny red thing flopped over and cried. 

The thing made Adam jump back. It had scruffy red fur, piercing yellow eyes, a pair of red horns and sharp fangs.

“What the hell are you?” Adam muttered to the crying creature as he carefully lowered himself to get a closer look. It cried as it lay on its back with its eyes closed. The box was beginning to fill with rainwater. Without thinking about it, Adam picked the tiny thing up out of the box to stop it from drowning.

The creature meowed at him and purred as he held it close. Were it not for its demonic features, the tiny thing would have looked like a baby cat.

Adam looked around before getting up, still holding the kitten. When he confirmed it was safe, he stood up and left the alleyway. He cursed. Home would have to wait. Adam made his way through the thunderstorm to the nearest animal shelter.

It was another hour before Adam was able to find an open shelter. He was cold and wet to the bone and so was the creature trembling in his arms. There was nobody at the front desk. Adam rang the bell and waited, hoping that someone was in. At least the lights were on. The tiny creature shivered and cried as Adam pulled dirt and twigs from its messy, red fur. It strained to raise its head and let out an exhausted peep.

“Is anybody in?” Adam called. “I’ve got a sick… something or other here!” 

Something started barking loudly in response.

Adam looked down the long hallway behind the front desk. The lights in the back were off leaving the hallway obscured by shadow. He couldn’t see the source of the barking. 

Finally, a human voice echoed from down the hall. “Damnit, I just put him to bed! Did you have to shout? Saradomin! It’ll take me forever to get him calmed down again!” A small, weasel of a man complained as he appeared from the dark hall and approached the front desk. The man looked down at the desk and then up at Adam. His eyebrows raised as though he had seen a ghost. “How can I… help you?” The man stuttered, pushing a pair of small, round glasses up the bridge of his nose. 

Adam was still hold the small, furry, red creature in his arms. It snuggled into him. “I found this animal in the alley by my house, I don’t know what it is, and I was hoping you could help find it a home.”

The man yawned. “Well, that is our job here, sir! Jasper Finnigan is the name! Let’s see what you’ve got there.” He said as he reached around for some paper and a pencil, never taking his eyes off the large green brute in front of him.

Slowly and carefully, Adam set the creature down on the desk. The trembling thing sneezed, it tried to stand up but was too weak and fell back down.  
Jasper recoiled at the sight of the sabre-toothed monster. “Gagh! That’s a hellcat!”

“A what?” Adam almost snapped in offense.

“A cat that has been cursed by the chaos of Zamorak! A feline equivalent to a hellhound!” Jasper explained, still in shock. “I’m afraid I can’t take it! In fact, you should kill it with fire before it gets the chance to spread its evil!”

“What the hell are you talking about, mister?” Adam spat at the man. “It’s a kitten! How can it be evil?!”

The poor kitten cowered as Adam raised his voice. Adam noticed immediately and began petting it to calm it down. 

“I refuse to take a spawn of Zamorak into the shelter! We take care all kinds of stray animals here, but this is completely out of the question!” Jasper exclaimed, shaking his head. He looked at the tiny kitten and the saddened green man petting it. 

Adam sighed. “There’s nothing you can do?”

Jasper shook his head. “Its dark energies are highly contagious to other animals. Just keeping it alive in here puts every animal in the shelter at risk.”

Adam looked at the quivering creature, still wet from the rain. With great effort, it looked up at him and opened its eyes. Its yellow eyes met with his. Adam felt a strange tingle in his heart he had never felt before. “Well what do I do with it?” He asked. “I’m not throwing it in a fire I can tell you that!”

Jasper pinched the bridge of his nose and sunk into his desk chair. “Do what you want, I played no part in this. This conversation never happened!”

Adam picked up the kitten and held it in his arms. The kitten stopped shivering and snuggled up against him, purring. Adam sighed. “I guess I’ll keep it then.”

The exhausted Jasper looked at Adam holding the kitten. He sighed, a slightly more sympathetic expression grew on his face. “You’re crazy…” He muttered.

Ignoring the comment, Adam looked down at the shivering, sneezing kitten. “You got any cat care advice? Is it a boy or a girl?”

Jasper was hunched over in his desk chair, half asleep. “It’s a male hellcat, looks about only a few days old, a week at the most… fuck me, a hellcat in my shelter!” He forced himself to look up at Adam once more, his long work hours had painted the stained bags under his eyes. “It really should be with it’s mother, it will need constant attention and feeding. That is, assuming it’s the same as normal, non-evil, cats.”

“What’s it eat?” Adam asked.

“The apothecary down the road makes a good formula for kittens, it’s not cheap but it’ll be a few weeks before it can eat real food like salmon or sardines.” Jasper began messing about in the drawers on his desk, taking his eyes off Adam as he spoke to him. “Taking care of a kitten at that age is more trouble than it’s worth if you ask me… And a hellkitten at that! I’d still consider burning it before it realizes it’s evil.”

Adam was appalled by the idea. But he thought for a moment. The apothecary was likely closed at this hour and he could barely afford to feed himself. A kitten would be a huge burden on him. In any responsible sense, he shouldn’t be getting a pet. “The strong who choose not to act are complicit in the suffering of the helpless.” Adam said with a smile as he looked down at the kitten.

Jasper stopped as he considered the quote. “Sir Tanner of Ravenmist, Second Age, Holy Book of Saradomin.” He muttered. “I never thought anyone would use it to justify helping something so evil…”

Adam was already at the door, ready to leave. He had heard enough paranoid dribble for one day.

“Wait!” Jasper called from behind the desk.

The green man stopped and turned around. He grunted. His patience with people at desks was running thin.  
Jasper set a small bottle of a white liquid on the desk. “Cat formula, it should get you through the night… I… I’m afraid it’s all I can spare. From one Saradominist to another… You’ll have to go to the apothecary tomorrow for more, it’ll be about 500 gold.” He said awkwardly.

Adam’s heart sank as he heard the cost of the formula, that was almost his entire wage! Still, he was very thankful for what Jasper offered. He took the bottle. “Thank you, friend.” Adam said.  
“Saradomin smiles upon you for your charity.”

“Here’s hoping…” Jasper muttered, still skeptical and visually uneasy about Sir Tanner’s most famous quote and the guiding principal of knights everywhere being applied to adopting a Zamorakian monster. 

Adam shut the door behind him and headed home in the rain with a small, red kitten in his arms. The heaving rain continued to drench them. Adam did his best to cover the kitten from the rain but there was little he could do.

The apartment complex where Adam lived was small and broken down. Adam’s apartment was tucked away at the back of the hall on the top floor. He walked down the old and beaten hallway with his new kitten. The landlord didn’t really have much of a choice when it came to a pet policy seeing as how most of his tenants were rats living in the hallway.

Adam climbed up the old wooden stairs and reached the door to his apartment at the end of the hall. At first he had thought being on the top floor was a luxury, the king of the castle as it were. However the long, rickety climb to his apartment had grown old within a week and now he detested it.

The top floor hallway was just as battered as the rest, no penthouses here. Adam made it to his apartment at the end of the hall and opened it up with his key in one hand and the cat in the other. The only thing that was sturdy about the whole building was his front door, security was a valuable asset in this neighbourhood. As much as he hated the place, Adam wasn’t a man to forget to count his blessings.

Adam’s apartment was just as small and cramped as the rest of the building, and no less broken down. Other apartments had two windows but Adam’s since it was tucked away in the back, only had one. One large window that viewed the mean streets of Varrock, not that such a view was anything to brag about. You couldn’t even see the castle or grand exchange from the window.

The view from Adam’s apartment was almost perfectly designed to highlight the absolute worst qualities of the city. Adam would sometimes look out that window and see somebody get mugged or a prostitute being beaten late at night. He would always attempt to save whoever it was that was in trouble but the long flight of stairs between him and the victim would result in him being too late. That was what pissed him off the most. The apartment let him see who was in trouble, but also prevented him from doing anything about it. It made him burn up inside.  
Adam set the kitten down on the lone rug on his cold wooden floor. He groaned, two helpdesks in one night, both yielding nothing but heartache and bad news. Guess that’s two mouths to feed now… Adam thought to himself. He needed to find some better quests now more than ever.

The kitten tried to walk but was shivering too much. He made a small peeping noise as he flopped on his side.

Adam lit a fire in the small limestone fireplace in his apartment and moved the rug with the kitten in front.

The kitten began to slowly back away from the fire, nervous.

Adam, seeming as though he realized the hellcat’s concerns picked up the cat and held it close. “No, no don’t worry. I’m not going to let you get hurt.” He shuddered as he thought about Jasper Finnigan’s suggestion. “It’s warm, just lie down and it’ll dry you off.” Adam set the kitten down. He almost considered not using the cat formula Jasper had given him out of principle. But there really was no choice tonight. He had already tested it for poison using the small titration kit he kept in his kitchen. Call him paranoid all you want, it’s what kept him alive during his years as a criminal. The formula was perfectly safe. 

The kitten purred loudly as he finally felt some warmth in his messy, red fur. Adam couldn’t help but laugh to himself as he watched the kitten snuggle into the blanket. It was adorable. Things were going to be difficult, but then again, when had they ever been easy? He’d do the monks of Entrana proud, he knew it. Adam would redeem himself in the eyes of the guild, raise this kitten and become the best damn adventurer who ever lived!

The kitten peeped at him.

“Tanner, that’s what I’ll call you.” Adam said as he stroked the sleepy kitten. It purred in response. Adam smiled. “I’ll live by you just as I’ll live by the words of Sir Tanner of Ravenmist. I swear in the name of Saradomin, I’ll be here for you…” He looked at the flier for his job tomorrow, 600 gold was the reward, the cat formula would cost 500 gold. “…forever.” He sighed as he pet his new hellcat. “We’ll make things work in a world that already hates us, you and me.”

Tanner the hellkitten purred as Adam continued to pet him by the fire.


End file.
